24 League-Winners Picked by Experts! Pickens, Loveland, Mahomes, & More! (08/13 Fantasy Football Podcast)

(upbeat music) - We're talking league winning fantasy options here on fantasy football today on CBS Sports Network and we're excited to help you win your fantasy leagues. I'm Jamie Eisenberg, that's Dave Richard, that's Heath Cummings. Before we get into the quarterbacks, which is where we're gonna start with the show today, got some news on Jonathan Brooks. We're gonna talk about Jonathan Brooks as a potential league winner, but Chubba Hubbard has a hamstring injury that's gonna make him a week to week, that's according to ESPN. Just real quick, before we get into the full Brooks conversation, when are you drafting Jonathan Brooks now? - Probably round seven. I had him in early round eights before this news. - Round six seven turn, right at that point, when you wanna start taking chances with your draft picks and fantasy, he's the top name on the list. - Yep, Jonathan Brooks, one of the best, feel good stories coming back after not playing in 2025 with his second ACL tear that he suffered in 2024. Now everybody's gonna be excited about him. Let's get excited about some quarterbacks, because that's obviously where we're gonna start here. And we're talking about guys that could be league winners. So what we kind of done with this is, one league winning quarterback, obviously Josh Allen, would be the guy that we all said, if we're just taking out cost, but we're plaitering in, where these guys could get drafted and how they can help you win your fantasy league. The guy for you, Heath is Brock Perty, for you, Dave, it's Patrick Mahomes, for me, it's Trevor Lawrence. Their average draft position on CBS Sports right now is all in round nine, which is kind of interesting that that's where we went, and we did not discuss that. So let's start with Brock Perty, because a very polarizing guy is to a certain extent, because he's has been a very good fantasy quarterback, but a lot of managers don't draft him to be a number one option. - I just don't think people have ever let go of the fact that he was drafted as Mr. relevant in round seven, because if you look at what Brock Perty's done since he's entered the NFL, first in yards per attempt, second in touchdown rate, first in success rate, and even in fantasy, over the last three seasons, he's the number four quarterback in fantasy points per game. Last year, through week 17, he was the number one quarterback in fantasy points per game, and I was talking about this on social media a little bit yesterday. - You? - No way. - The craziest projection that I could make is if I just gave the 49ers the same number of pass attempts as last year, and gave Brock Perty his career passing efficiency. Because that'd be 574 attempts at 8.6 yards per attempt, which is almost 5,000 yards, and it'd be 35 passing touchdowns. That'd be the QB1. - Yeah, it'd be QB1 by far. He averaged over 24 fantasy points per game in six point in nine games last year. Now he's got Mike Evans. Now he's got Dejon Stribling, Debo Samuel's back in town, George Kiddell's healthy, and Christian McCaffrey. We know the inefficiencies as him with him as a runner, was a little bit because of just how game flow was and the offensive line for San Francisco, little bits on CMC too. But Brock Perty is really in a great position to have a big year. And so, too, is Patrick Mahomes. - I think it's Patrick Mahomes. - Oh, you get the home just a second. - Okay, I get the music. - I don't know where we were. - You mentioned the names there. Does he have those guys? Because we don't have Kiddell on the field yet, dealing with the Achilles injury still in the public. Mike Evans is already missed time in training camp with an injury. Stribling missed a little bit of time as well. Christian Kirk has not been able to practice another name that-- - Don't worry about Ricky Purysol. - It's supposed to be part of the game. - Ricky Purysol is not going to be part of the team this year. Can we trust Brock Perty? Now last year he did all this with a very different receiving core because a lot of guys were banged up. But can you trust him to get by if a lot of these moving parts are not going to be on the field consistently? - I think, and listen, the one thing people will say when you talk about how good Brock Perty is, well, it's Kyle Shanahan. I think for fantasy football, you shouldn't care. Because Kyle Shanahan's still there. He's still calling the plays. It's the same thing. And if you look at the track record of Kyle Shanahan, they've had injuries upon injuries upon injuries. They've had Jimmy Garoppolo. And it was still over eight yards per pass attempt. I just think in this offense, as long as Purdy himself stays healthy, it's going to be kind of like the tagline on fantasy football today. Some combination of kid ol' CMC, Evan's D-Bow, and the John Strribble, and making a lot of noise early in the season. - So round nine is the value for him, but he's actually QB 13 off the board. You having a little bit higher than that though. - He is QB eight in my projections. - Okay, so you're willing to reach a little bit for Brock Perty or just play the board and see how he falls. Let's talk about Mahomes now. So another injury related situation coming off last year's ACL tear. The big thing that we saw from Mahomes last season, which was different than the three previous seasons when he was not a great fantasy quarterback, was the rushing production. How much does that maybe take away from what Mahomes can do this year if he's not going to run to that level? Because A, probably not going to do it because injury B, man I have to, because the run game is going to be a little bit different. And he said himself that he doesn't want to run as much as he did last year, but push comes to shove. I'm sure there's going to be moments where he does scramble with the football. I'm not going to expect him to do what he did last year when it comes to running the football, but I can't help but think about what he gains having Kenneth Walker in the backfield. Walker looks like he's actually a really good pass catcher. We've seen it from him before in spurs, but the chief seemed to really be leaning into that in Walker's game. And if Walker forces defenses to change how they play against Kansas City, then there's going to be one on one situations open down field for Patrick Mahomes to hit. I went back and I looked at his two seasons when he had a running back average north of 15 PPR points per game. One was 2018, that was Cream Hunt, Hunt was a monster that year, and so was Mahomes. Over 32 fantasy points per game. 2023 was the other year, was Biceco Biceco barely over that 15 PPR point per game, Mark. Emma Holmes had a floor season, you talked about it, 20.9 fantasy points per game. I think if we're drafting him with that absolute florest floor of 21 fantasy points per game, and it's round nine, that's absolutely brilliant, because we know what he's capable of doing, we know what that ceiling is, and last year for crying out loud, 28 fantasy points per game in his first six games, that was without Rashee Rice, and his first eight games Rashee Rice was back for two of them, almost 29 fantasy points per game. I can't leave somebody like that on the table, even if he's my number two quarterback, I'm taking him weight and every draft I can. - But you're basically out, right? And that's surprising, 'cause you're the chiefs guy. - Completely out. - And it's more of a projections thing, that a chiefs thing, or even thinking that they're not going to be good. It's just that, I think the arrival of Kenneth Walker means that they run the ball more than they have recently. They've been one of the most pass heavy offences in the NFL, and I think Mahomes coming off of the leg injury means that he runs the ball less. So if he has fewer pass attempts and fewer Rashee attempts, and I don't think they really added anything as a weapon in the receiving game that's going to make him more efficient as a- - Oh, come on, Cyrus Allen, baby. - Cyrus Allen's doing very well so far, but it wasn't just last year. He's had at least 300 yards rushing each of the last six seasons. And the one year that he didn't, that 2018 season, he ran for 272 yards and two touchdowns. It's normally been two to four fantasy points per game that he's got from running. I hope he gets one fantasy point per game for rushing this year, and I think he probably throws less than he has in a long time. - I would prefer to draft him as a backup. I know you're taking him as a low-end starter. I think you're taking him as a backup as well. But then you get into the mix of guys that might have more upside than him when you talk about Tyler Schuck and Kyloy Berth - You throw Moly Bulls in that. - And through it, you know that. - It's crazy as it sounds. - Well, listen, it's just what your view of name versus game, because everybody loves Patrick Mahomes name. He's still being drafted again. I think he's QB, so he's QB 14 right now. So Stafford's 12, Party's 13, Mahomes is 14, but again, all in that round nine range. So we'll show a Twitter poll here about which of the quarterbacks that we are talking about here who likes them the most, who likes which of these guys the most. For me, it's Trevor Lawrence, again, going ahead of these guys. He's going as QB 10 right now. I'm just excited because we hear Parker Washington this and Brian Thomas that and we know Jacobi Myers and Travis Hunter, this is the guy that's orchestrating this offense. And we'll be saw last year in Liam Cohen's system a lot more running. Certainly the rushing touchdowns, nine rushing touchdowns, which was a career high. I don't think you can expect that again. I know he will say the word that everybody loves regression. But he did average over 30 fantasy points per game. In his last eight outings when you factor into playoffs. And now we're talking about just getting more comfortable. And again, a better version of Washington. Hopefully a better version of the healthy version of Travis Hunter. And then the maybe resurgence of Brian Thomas, which makes things fun. Plus you have a run game that probably going to take a little bit of a step back at least early in the season because of the change from Travis at that point. ETN Travis HN now going to Basel II and Chris Rodriguez. So for me, I would almost pass on all the top to your quarterbacks because I target Trevor Lawrence based on where he's going. And he's one of my favorite breakouts for this year. So let's show you the Twitter poll again. These are just factoring all three quarterbacks. You could probably guess who's going to win this one because I think a lot of people excited about Trevor Lawrence. But they should be. So which quarterback would you rather have this season? All three being drafted in round nine using the CBS Sports ADP Trevor Lawrence about 1100 votes, getting 56.9% of that Brock Party 20.3. And Patrick Mahomes 22.9. Now you have it ranked pretty over all these guys, right? Oh, yes. I will say this was not this close early on. I think Brock Party was around 10% of the vote. And I tried to influence the vote. Make my guy live better and just shared with the people on Twitter. The Brock Party was better than both of these guys on a per game basis last year. And has been better than both of these guys on a per game basis for the last three years. Yeah, listen, history matters in some of these cases. Mahomes obviously has a great history. We'll see if Trevor Lawrence can finally have that consistency in because we've seen it in spree. You know, the lesson here is you can wait a little bit on quarterback and come away with an absolute stud. You don't have to take one early in your drafts. We've seen the ADP for Josh Allen and Round 2 that's still too early. All those other elite tier quarterbacks that you mentioned. You don't have to take them early unless they just absolutely fall to a steel price. This is the reason why. You can get one of Lawrence Mahomes' party. You can make the argument. for any of them to be the best. Nope, it's gonna be fun to draft quarterbacks. All right, we're gonna take a break right now here on Fantasy Football State. When we come back and again into some running backs, he can be able to debate. Bree Sol will get more into the Jonathan Brooks news that Chubahub are gonna miss some time. That's next here on F-50. (upbeat music) Welcome back to Fantasy Football. Today we're talking about league winners and now we're talking about running backs. So we're each gonna give you two guys I think that qualify as league winners and then we're gonna finish it up with three running backs that could be league winners. One kind of got a little bit of a boost with an injury that happened today. So we'll talk about Jonathan Brooks a little bit at the end of the segment. But let's talk about a couple guys for you, Heath and that's Bree Sol and Giandra's with. And let's just get right to it. You love Bree Sol. You're a little bit concerned about Bree Sol. I'm in a little bit a lot. Make your case four, make your case against. So I think the case four Bree Sol has to start simply without awesome he is. He has been an efficient rusher and receiver ever since he entered the NFL averaging 4.5 yards per carry for his career. 6.6 yards per target. He's actually one of three running backs since he was drafted. That have at least 250 targets and have averaged at least 6.6 yards per target. It's Christian McCaffrey, it's Bijan Robinson, it's Bree Sol. And I don't think it's a stretch to put him in that class with those types of guys. And so the next thing is is he going to get more work than he did last year because it was a disaster in terms of the split and the offense. I think the offense is better. I think the team is smarter and gets him a larger share of the work. We've already seen reports from camp that kind of indicate that's going to be the case. Would not be surprised at all if Bree Sol had an 80 target season. Let me admit to something that I haven't admitted yet. I hope I'm wrong on this because I agree on the talent part about Bree Sol. And he was very efficient last year. 4.4 yards per carry, over 9 yards per catch. That was awesome. Jimmy had 17.4 touches per game and couldn't even get past 13 PPR points per game. He had eight games last year. I almost said 10 games under eight PPR points. It's eight games under 10 PPR points last year. What's changed in New York? They still want to use three running backs. Frank Reich has this track record of using multiple running backs. One on running downs, one on passing downs. I think Bree Sol is good. I'm worried about this Jets team putting up a lot of points. I'm worried about Bree Sol becoming more efficient than he was last year when he was already efficient, already getting a lot of work and still putting up a bad number. I think he's worth it in late round four, early round five. I think round three is way too soon. And his average at position right now is 31.7. So round three is basically where you're gonna have to pay the price to get Bree Sol. But I see both sides this. I just think the Jets are going to be better. And I think by an extension of that, their best player is going to benefit. So we'll see how that impacts Bree Sol. You got Deandre Swift as a league winner as well. Not going at the same range, going more in the round four spot for Swift. How concerned are you based on what we saw a second after the season with common non guy. And now we know the non guy's healthy after you know, being a little bit banged up. Does Swift have league winning upside if he has a little bit of an anchor? So I think he has league winning upside at his consensus ADP, which is in round five because it allows you to draft those elite wide receivers and still get a surefire starting RB2 in round five. But I also think that the non guy battling with injury is kind of a good reminder. And it applies to Swift. It applies to Kyron Williams. These guys that we rank as RB2. So who are in time shares, but the offense is just so awesome that they're still worthy as mid-range RB2s. The contingent upside they have. We usually think about that for Kylo Manongai or for Blake Gorum that we're drafting these handcuffs that are kind of flexes that could be must-start running backs. But if something happens to Kylo Manongai, we could see just not-- and listen, Swift beat ADP last year. He was a lot better than he had to almost every year. Right now he's being drafted right around RB23. He's probably going to slightly beat it again. But if Manongai goes down, he's a top 10 running back. And then we have the new wrinkle of Ben Johnson saying that he wants to have the highest scoring offense in NFL history. That could tell both those guys. So hopefully it's good for Swift and good for Manongai. I'm going to show you a Twitter poll here of which running back would you rather have this season in Brees Hall or DeAndre Swift, again, not comparing two guys that we're fighting about here, just two guys that he is excited about and no surprise based on the ADP, the Twitter poll, as well. Brees Hall getting 55.8% of the votes. All right, Dave, a couple guys for you that you think could be League of Winners, are Chase Brown and O'Marion Hampton. Let's start with Brown. Because right now as ADP puts him early and around to a 14th overall, we all think he should be around one pick. I think he should be a top 10 pick, Jamie. And you can make the case that he should go ahead of Christian McCaffrey. And that sounds crazy on the surface. But when you think about all the flaws in McCaffrey's game and the upside and Chase Brown's game, it does make sense. Obviously you could think about the upside and McCaffrey's game and the flaws in Chase Brown's game. And then obviously you put McCaffrey ahead of it. But remember last year from week eight on, he averaged 19.4 touches per game and 21.2 PPR points per game. Any player that's got upside for 20 plus PPR points is a first round pick in Fantasy Football. It was ludicrous when he was going in late round two. That was about two weeks ago in ADP. Now that he's a top 15 pick, it's a little bit more reasonable. If I'm one of those fantasy managers with a late first round pick, and I like a lot of receivers that could make it back to me in round two, I'm taking Chase Brown in round one and not thinking twice about it. It's exciting to see if he can perform like this over the course of the season in a contract year. I think that definitely helps. And then you have almost everybody since Nadi talking about Joe Burrow saying that he's as valuable as Jamar Chase. So I'm really excited to see what Chase Brown could do. Amar and Hamden's a little bit tougher to trust at this point because of what Mike McDaniel said. So their offense coordinator, former Dolphins coach, comes out and says we're going to use all three running backs basically alluding to Amar and Hamden, Keaton Mitchell, and Kamani by Dal, all taking part in this offensive game plan. We don't buy that, but this is something to keep in mind that there are going to be multiple guys getting touches here. What's the ceiling for Amar and Hamden? Oh, I think the ceiling for him is 20 PPR points per game as well, and you don't have to take him in round one. And it's just the whole idea that he could lose touches to Keaton Mitchell and maybe a few to Kamani by Dal. But I think Videll is the backup running back there who will get just a couple of token snaps a game as long as Amar and Hamden is healthy. And I've had the debate back and forth about Hamden versus Gentie. And I don't mind people that want to take Aston Gentie ahead of Amar and Hamden. But remember this, Amar and Hamden last year had a higher points per game average, better efficiency, better consistency than Aston Gentie. His offensive line, look at him prove for Gentie. It's better for Amar and Hamden. We hope. New play collar in LA is better than the new play collar in Las Vegas. And so maybe I'll concede that Gentie will catch more passes than Amar and Hamden. But Hamden should be able to blow him away in every other statistical category. I think he's the workhorse that Mike McDaniel leans on the most, just like McDaniel leans on Devon H.Anne and Miami. And you saw what those numbers were like over 20 PPR points per game. I think we might have-- that might be a good debate about whether the new offensive coordinator in Los Angeles is better than the one in Las Vegas. The Coovey-Ax had a little bit of success himself as well. So I think Hamden could be a league winner. I have a hard time seeing how Justin Herbert and Lad McConkey make the big leap. And Hamden is the league winner. I think one of the things that gets overlooked a little bit about the hardball, McDaniel combination is we're probably going to get a team with a pretty low play volume. And so they-- So that's true. And I think that helps the run game. It could go run heavy. And it could be awesome for Mario and Hamden. And he could be worth a first round pick. And then it's probably going to be a bad time for Justin Herbert and Lad McConkey in terms of fulfilling their current ADP, or that could be more balanced. And then I think Hamden's probably being drafted just about right. I'm interested to see what the rotation is like. Does Vital have any snaps? It's like a quintal in situation, or does he have any snaps that actually matter? And then what does Keaton Mitchell do? Because I remember loving Keaton Mitchell during his rookie season and those big explosive plays. And I don't know if there's anybody in the NFL that's more addicted to those types of offensive plays than Mike McDaniel. I think it's fascinating when you look at average opposition because really starting at the back end of Round 1 through the middle of Round 2, you have Ashton Gentia 12.7. You have Chase Brown at 14.1. Seik 1, Barclay at 14.4. Derek Henry at 15.4. Amar and Hamden at 17.5. And Ken Walker at 22.5. And I think there's just so many different ways you can approach that because the two older players of Barclay and Henry-- Henry coming off another fantastic season expected to get fed again. Barclay and New Offense Coordinator expected to bounce back a little bit, probably not to 2024. We love Chase Brown. We think he should be a first round pick. But Hamden and Gentie and Walker, I think, sort of are the ones that are the most polarizing. So it's going to be fun to see how fantasy managers draft them. And to Dave's point, you can get two of those guys, if you pick at the back end of Round 2. I would see what the Twitter X audience likes in terms of Chase Brown versus Amar and Hamden. 1600 votes on this one. Chase Brown running away with those 77.1% of the votes compared to Hamden. All right, two guys for me. But I'm excited about his league winners. Dave mentioned one, Ash and Gentie. The other would be Ken Walker. So kind of just wrapping up all these guys in the same range. I'll start with Gentie. Dave made the reference to better offensive line, better play collar. Yes, those things are definitely going to happen for him. So he gets Tyler Lindermom, the center from Baltimore, Colton Miller, who missed a lot of time last year coming back at 100%. At least that's the hope. And then Clint Kubiak to Heath's point did very well last year with the combination of Zach Sharbonne and Ken Walker and Sharbonne, everyone a parent in Seattle in helping that team win the Super Bowl. So I'm excited about Gentie because, yes, Mike Washington could have a role. But all we hear is this is going to be the guy. We don't have to worry about maybe even whatever small role Keaton Mitchell and Kamaniye Vidal have. I think Gentie's in line to still be very successful I'm passing down 75 receptions last year. This team is probably-- going to be trailing a lot and I think the quarterback play whether it's Kirk Cousins or Mendoza or just both is better than what we got from Geno Smith last year at least that's the hope based on what we saw so it's funny if you look at Gen T season last year and you just say okay he was the 16th best run he back that's a really good rookie season we just inflated the expectations like we did with B. John Robinson his rookie season and then he came back in year two and was absolutely dynamic so that's the hope for me with Gen T I would take him in round one I'm very excited about the situation for him and I love the fact that he's cut out sugar he's lost weight I think we'll see a little bit more explosive action Gen T Ken Walker has been very polarizing for us for years because we see the town we see the explosiveness we did not see a lot of work in the passing game however if you go back to 2024 you only played 11 games that year he was on pace for 71 catches which I think is very remarkable if he can do that and Dave's order mentioned this in the Patrick Mahomes discussion that this is a weapon that they can use and I think will surprise a lot of people I don't know 50 catches are I'm curious what you have a productive or I don't know 50 catches but I think north of 40 is certainly on the table for him and then if he gets anything close to plus 50 plus 60 we're talking about a guy that not only could be a league winner but might be a top five running back if this offense operates like I expected to which is going to be shifting more toward a little bit more run heavy approach so what's the projection I've got him right around 40 catches right now and I think that certainly the drum beat from training camp has been you need to increase that it's just so difficult to know when we're just like hearing some people watching practice that they are practicing this thing now do you want to adjust your season long projection based on that but it sounds like that there's more upside than that and you guys a little bit more cautiously optimistic on Walker not like because I'm all in like he's he's basically he might be a round one pick for me at this point wow like he's he's 30 you know so yeah he may be I just keep seeing I'm surprised the ADP reflects that there's only four receivers going in round one I don't know why like I'm hesitant to just push the CD lambs the last one there for me like just push them really when you get like this you make this yeah you know I see Walker being top 12 I just think that that Walker is just trending in the right direction and if we didn't have any concern about injury that's one he could be awesome and the other is that Patrick Moehm's is still the quarterback of this team and while that might change just how much they throw and especially what they do in the red zone and when they get near the goal line that used to be all Moehm's now it's probably going to be a way tilted toward the run game in toward Kenneth Walker but I still think push comes to shove Patrick Moehm's is going to have his way with this offense and he's still going to have opportunities to make big plays it doesn't mean that Walker's going to do nothing I'm with you I think he's really in a great situation to survive I think Fancy owners have just been snake bit so many times by the injuries with Walker and they don't know who to get is the the back up there in Kansas City so if they take Walker with a round one or a round two pick how do you safeguard against that I think you just throw caution of the win at this point and say good running back great offense we've seen them run the ball before take him with at least a top 20 pick yep and not even going to the top 20-22 right now is his average abs just and this pole actually surprised me so Ash and Gentie versus Ken Walker I thought this would be a runaway for Gentie it's actually Walker winning the Twitter pole right now 1600 votes he's getting 54.7% of the votes compared to Gentie at 45.3 who tweeted that up I did that's what I was saying oh because I mean I have Gentie ranked ahead of Walker so if you're following that logic then you know I would still make sense to go with Gentie all right let's talk about three guys that could be league winners that are not going in the same range at least as of now one of them for you is Jonathan Brooks the other one for you Davis Rico Dotto and for me it's Kenneth Gainwell so he let's start with Brooks because again we got the news right before the show that Chewbahubberd is going to miss some time with a hamstring injury you said round 6-8 right I said seven I think Dave said six or seven or so yeah so could it get higher than it oh it went that that's the thing is it probably it may have gotten more difficult for Jonathan Brooks to be a league winner today because his cost is going to go up and it's easier to be a league winner in round seven or round eight than it is to be a league winner in round four or round five and if he breaks a big run in their first preseason game and Chewbahubberd's not practicing in 10 days where six or seven is not going to get it done it's going to be around five pick I think that there were signals throughout the summer that Carolina had big expectations for Jonathan Brooks and in fact we're kind of hoping that he would become their starting running back he has a better pedigree and more upside than Chewbahubberd they love him as a pass catcher he's probably still going to be a 1a though and so I I'm a little worried if we get up to the point where it takes around five or even round six pick to draft him that it gets a lot harder to make a profit at that but as long as you can get him in round seven or round eight I absolutely love it and he can win you a league there they want to ask you about Rico Dattles because we know our audience watches our podcast listen to our show watches this show you made a case on the bus show today on FFT that is that the stealers running backs be a bus and now you're saying Rico Dattles league winners just makes sense of where you're coming out it depends on where you're drafting if you're drafting him in round six it's just too rich for my blood the latest or the earliest would be late round seven that would consider Rico Dattles and I view him as the 1a running back in Pittsburgh this is a head coach in my McCarthy that literally brought Rico into the national football league stuck with him when he had an injury and then gave him an opportunity to be a thousand yard back in Dallas the last year that they were both there and we saw what he's capable of doing last year in Carolina he had some monster games that help fantasy managers in the middle of the year now he's going to Pittsburgh that offensive line should be okay we know that offense will want to be balanced I think Rico Dattles can do a lot of the same things that Jalen Warren can do i.e the past game and he's been better in goal line situations than Jalen Warren basically over the course of their careers so I think that there's a real opportunity for Rico Dattles to split with Warren but also win at the goal line and that's the type of running back that I'm looking for in the middle of draft I like Brooks better I'd rather gamble on Brooks than Dattles about Dattles would probably be next in line for me as far as running backs to take a shot on in the middle of a draft who could turn out to be huge winners can he be a league winner though if Warren is healthy yeah because I think he can score more touchdowns than Warren while catching about as many passes all right this one for me is mostly PPR related but Kenneth Gainwell is in a spot where he's going to share work with Bucky Irving we at least at this point no Bucky Irving's healthy and that's the best part so you're still drafting Irving first but we did hear earlier this offseason 1a and 1b in terms of how these guys are going to be used and Gainwell got enough of a contract that I think he's going to have a role certainly on passing downs and that's what we're hearing here's the thing I keep going back to when we talk about these guys and again he'll ask you what your projections are for Gainwell because on sports line he's projected for 60 catches had 73 catches last year since 2021 there's been 44 running backs with at least 50 catches 38 of them average at least 13 PPR points per game there were 80 running backs with at least 40 catches in that span 68 of them average at least 11 PPR points per game so if you're involved in the passing game that gives you such an advantage and gives you an opportunity to be successful and potentially a league winner for this format and again I think Gainwell's role in the passing game different coordinator same at coach but what we saw from Rashad White three of the last four seasons 50 plus catches so I think if we can talk about Baker relying on a pass catching running back and Zach Robinson for what it's worth last year gave Buzon Robinson over 100 targets clearly not the same player but obviously Keith Kenneth Gainwell is going to catch whatever number what's the projector for you I've got him a 45 okay so 45 so that would give him the chance to be north of 11 PPR points if he hits that number just based on what he's capable of doing and then we saw last year as well you know going back to Pittsburgh when Taylor and Warner was out Gainwell in the couple of games that he got a chance to start he was an absolute monster so he's an easy guy for me to take in the mid-round you're taking him right around round nine which I think is is definitely worth the upside another guy that sort of falls into category for me just site one to give one is Rashad White because I think he's going to be that guy for the commanders as well but three guys here that we have that we all like that could certainly supersede their ADP and be potential league winners Donald Brooks now getting the big boost because of two Bahabras and real story the Twitter poll here of which running back everybody likes most no surprise it's gonna be Jonathan Brooks and again this was I sent this out last night before the news so take that into account but as you see here Jonathan Brooks 58.7% of the vote Rico Dowell 23.3 and Kenneth Gainwell 18.1 all right we're gonna take a break right now we come back and again into the wide receiver league winners that we like we'll tell you about some guys that are going early some guys you can take with some mid-round picks as well that's next here on F50 welcome back to fantasy football today we're talking about league winning wide receivers and we have a trio of guys we think could be league winners for 2026 for Heath you have George Pickens Zay Flowers and Luther Burton they've got Malik neighbors Jalen Waddle and Parker Washington for me it's Devon Desmith and Mecca Buka and DJ Moore so Heath will start with your guys and have some questions for you in regards to each of these wide receivers so start with Pickens. Can he be a league winner if CD lamb is healthy? Absolutely think you can he have your 15.4 PPR fantasy points per game in his last 11 games with CD lamb last year and that was while scoring three touchdowns in those 11 games we all know George Pickens has the ability to score double digit touchdowns in a season if he just has that type of usage and scores the touchdowns at his round two sets three cost you could be a league winner. This is one of your favorite players and that's Zay Flowers so the question for you is the ceiling for Zay Flowers is blank. First round value he was top five in route participation top five in target share top five in in yards per route run he just needs the Ravens to throw the ball more than they did last year and last year they were 15% below Lamar Jackson's career norm he also needs to score touchdowns those two things happen he's a top five wide receiver and then with Luther Burton we got this growing injury now that we're dealing with you brought up something good on our breakout show yesterday that it's kind of saving you from yourself because a lot of people getting excited about Lutherburne, you said he would have been taking him in round three if we had continued on this type train. Now when would you take Lutherburne and how concerned are you that does an injury may linger? - I think you have to look at him at the end of round four or the beginning of round five. He's going to have around five ADP. It was round 48 before the injury, probably gonna be closer to 58 now. And so the great thing about that is, before drafting in round three, you had a much smaller margin there in terms of finding some upside beyond his costs. Now, if you can draft him in round five, the upside's still the same. The brain injury doesn't change that. There's a lot more room for him to make a profit in round five. - Dave, when you look at burden, and we know there's Colston-Loveland and we know more importantly, from the receiver conversation, there's Roe Mottoonze, who was awesome to start the year last year and then had the foot injury. Which receiver based on cost, are you more excited about? - I'm more excited about burden than I am, Mottoonze. And I think it's just because the team seems to be more excited about Luther Burton, the fact that he could be in this position where he's gonna be versatile. And that's something that I'm looking for from my receivers in fantasy this year. How many of these wide receivers can line up anywhere across the formation and work at all three levels of the field? And I think Luther Burton can do that. And at bare minimum, he can work in that short area and be an easy target for Caleb Williams. And Caleb needs some easy targets after his completion rate has not been great to start his career. - It's gonna be fun to see how burden does and certainly gonna be fun to see how Zay flowers does. Check out our fantasy football play podcast for a fun bet between Heath Cummings and Adam Azar regarding maybe some facial hair there. All right, the three guys for you, and League of Neighbors, Dale and Waddle Parker Washington, some questions for you in regards to these three. - All right, shoot. - Neighbors coming back from the ACL tear, we know so far everything has been positive. The earliest you would draft in League of Neighbors is. - Late round two. - I'm ready. I think he's close enough to being close enough. And that means that he's gonna be out there week one for the Giants. It's gonna be the easy target leader for that team. I think Jackson Dart isn't a total disaster as a thrower. I don't think Matt Nagy is a total disaster as a play call. I remember in Chicago, he had Mitchell Trubisky. I think Jackson Dart is at least one step better than Mitchell Trubisky, even at this point in his young career. And everybody's gonna know to throw Mollie Neighbors the football. I think he's worth a pick and late round too. And I think he'll finish as a top 12 wide receiver. - Jalen Waddle joins the Broncos after a couple disappointing seasons in Miami. Why is he a League winner? - He's going to get volume through an opportunity that he hasn't had in like four years. You've got to turn back the clock to 2022. The last time Jalen Waddle was getting the ball a lot in an offense and making plays with it. And when he did, when things were right in Miami in 2022, before Tyree Kill, Tuo was there. It was over 16 PPR points per game as long as Tuo was on the field with Jalen Waddle. Now it's Bonix, that's a step up. And Sean Payton does have a track record of high-perturbing his number one receiver. This is another wide out. That's got versatility, you can line up anywhere. And he can win at all three levels. I know he's banged up right now. The dude has played at least 14 games every year of his six year career. - Does it bother you that we're getting Pat Bryant buzz on top of Courtland Sutton still being there? - I think it hurts Sutton more than it hurts Waddle. I think Pat Bryant could end up being real close in targets to Sutton. And I think Jalen Waddle just runs away getting north of seven and a half targets per game. - Okay, if you've been paying attention to anything that's happened so far this off season, Parker Washington is the most buzzwording name in Fantasy Football right now. - For good reason. - For good reason. And so you have him as a league winner. So Dave, here we go. We got all these wide receivers in Jacksonville with Brian Thomas Jr. and Travis Hunter and Jacobi Myers, whatever, we want to put those guys in including Washington. Right now he's going 85th overall. - Still. - I don't think that's going to be where Parker Washington goes. I think we're going to see him creep into round six. Is he going to be overpriced? - Jamie, I would take him in late round five and full PPR. I think he's absolutely going to be worth it. This is another one of those versatile wide receivers. Maybe, you know, think of him as a winner deep down the field. And I don't think the Jaguars need to ask him to do that. Given who else they have at Whiteout. But I think push comes to shove with the questions about the run game in Jacksonville. We can see Parker Washington continue to get a ton of targets. He had the same pace from week seven on last year as CD Lam had for the entire season. 14.4 PPR points per game. That number should at least stay steady. Drafting him in round five, six, seven. I think that that's excellent value. - Would you do that? - Seven, yes. - Late round six? - Late round six. But maybe, yeah, this is the type of guy that I generally feel really uncomfortable with. When it's just like we had kind of two and a half years of we kind of knew who Parker Washington was. And then we had a six game stretch or a four game stretch that's just out of this world. And then we have to draft him as if that's going to happen again. And so I'll hedge a little bit. If I'm in a draft with a bunch of people that are not on social media and they don't realize that everybody's gone insane about Parker Washington. I will definitely draft him in late round six, early round seven. But I can't get him anywhere else. - By the way, the four game stretch that Heath is talking about. That was his last four games to end the year. 19 PPR points per game. - We are not drafting him based on that expectation. It's more five points per game lower than that. 14 PPR points per game. Yeah, I think I'm okay with that as a top 60 pick. - Do you get internet in the cave that you'll be drafting in? - Hopefully not. - Hopefully not. - All right, we'll see. Three guys for me, Devon Te Smith and Mecca Buka, DJ Moore, two of those guys dealing with injuries right now. Smith dealing with a hamstring injury is yet to practice in training camp. Not ideal. A Buka left with what's reported as a toe injury. Yesterday, hopefully he'll be okay. DJ Moore has been fine so far. So the questions I have for myself are is Mecca Buka being drafted too far ahead of Chris Godwin? I think that answer is yes. Because I do think Chris Godwin's going to be much better than he was the last couple of year or at least the last year. But a Buka has a chance to be absolutely awesome. Let's hope that toe injuries find. - I think it's minor. - Yeah, but it's still turf toe. You heard that being thrown out there. - Oh, that would be bad. - So that's something just to keep an eye on there. But I think round three is the right spot for Mecca Buka. When you look at Devon Te Smith, I also would take him in round three, but I want to see him on the field. Again, very small sample size, but three games without AJ Brown in those three games. Average 16 PPR points per game. The targets were off the charts. And so hopefully he's back on the field and helping Jaylen Hurts and helping maybe their social media account with Jaylen Hurts throwing the ball a little bit better to a guy like Devon Te Smith. For DJ Moore, can he do what's DeFon Diggs did in Buffalo, which was absolutely awesome when he first joined the bills. By all accounts, DJ Moore has been fantastic. I would throw it out. Everything you saw from the last year when you only got 85 targets. In the two years, he played with Joe Brady. When Brady was the offense coordinator in Carolina and DJ Moore, early part of his career. At least 13.9 PPR points per game in those two seasons. So that would certainly put him at a higher level than where he's being drafted. As you see, the 29th wide receiver off the board, I would actually take DJ Moore in round four. Very excited about him for this season. All right, the Twitter poll that we have is which trio of wide receivers do you like better? So heaths trio, Dave's trio, my trio, very close poll here. So we have all three of these guys. Pickens Flowers, Burden for Heath, neighbors, Waddle, Washington for Dave, and Smith, a book more for me, slight, slight edge, 36.8% in my favor, then Heaths guys next, 36.5, and Dave coming in at third, but again, very close poll for all three of these guys, 26.7. All right, we're gonna take a break right now. We come back and we'll talk about some league winning tight ends for you. Sam LaPorta, Holston, Loveland, Tucker Craft. Can they help you win your fantasy leagues in 2026? That's next on FFT. Today we have league winning tight ends for you. Three guys that are hopefully going to help you dominate your fantasy leagues in 2026. For Heath, it's Sam LaPorta. For Dave, it's Holston Loveland. For me, it's Tucker Craft. Heath, make your case why Sam LaPorta is a league winner. I don't think it should be too hard to make the case 'cause he's already had a tight end one season. He has been outstanding already in his young career, and now he gets through. Petsing the guy who orchestrated the Tremac bride, breakout came from the Kevin Stofansky system. Both of those play-cullors has sent about 27% of their targets to tight ends over the last three seasons. Could be a career high in targets for Sam LaPorta, and he has, as he's shown, that high, high touchdown ability because he plays in one of the best offenses in football. Don't be surprised if he has 1,000 yards and double-digit touchdowns and finishes his tight end one again. You're drafting him when? I generally draft him in round six. Round six, okay, which is a little bit ahead of his ADP. I think the fun thing about this line's offense, we talk about all the time. Whenever they're indoors, they're awesome. Only five outdoor games before week 18. So the first 17 weeks of the season, which is what matters for fantasy, he's only going to be out in the morning. I think it's 10 of their last 11 are indoors. Yeah, it's just a great stretch and hopefully, you know, Jaregoff, some offensive line concerns right now, but enough to our-- That's actually good for LaPorta. Potentially. You know, you don't want to see Sam Donald assist him. Jaregoff on his back, you know, and-- You don't want to see Donald's back. Don't want to see Donald Donald's back either. All right, let's talk about close to the level because he's everybody's breakout tie to end this year. Yeah. Great to end last year. Well, we saw last year last six games, 7.3 targets per game. That's rare to see from a rookie. Did LaPorta as a rookie ever get north of seven targets per game? Yeah, 120 in his room season. Really, really good. And so if that-- and who was his play caller then, that rookie year? I think that was Ben Johnson. It was Ben Johnson. So I wonder if Ben Johnson looks at Loveland, the same way he looked at LaPorta once upon a time. And I would argue that at this point in their career, Loveland is a little bit more exciting and definitely has more upside. You look at the games where he's had five plus targets. He's averaging 15.7 p.p. in their points per game. Six plus targets goes up to 21.2. Massive upside for a tight end that I don't hesitate to take when I see him in round four or late round three in full ppr. It's just going to be hopefully-- this is the type of guy you mentioned, you'll Parker Washington buying into the late round-- or late season finish, can it carry over this year? Like this guy, everybody's all in on. Everybody wants to get a piece of post in Loveland. Any analyst draft I've done, you see him sometimes going around, think you haven't ranked as your second tight end, right? - He has my tied into ahead of Tremac bride, and I would take him in round three. - So it's just one of those situations where can he do what he did last year when there was no Roma Dunze for the majority of that. He had the foot injury. Now maybe Luther Bern in out, we'll see how that goes. - Yeah, that's a lot. - I'm not gonna fight anybody on Colson Love Island. There's just no argument that makes sense against Colson Love Island, except maybe the position being as deep as it is, and are you reaching for somebody that may not ascend to those heights, sorry. - No, I do think that the important thing, 'cause I said burden, Dave's dead, Loveland, neither of us hate so Dunze, but they gave, they lost 150 targets from last year, and DJ Moore and Lomadeza Kies, just concentrate those amongst us. - Yes, they're gonna do that. - They can all three be awesome. - Yes, they can all three be awesome. That would be fun. And speaking of concentrated targets, we finally have that for the Packers, because they lose 135 targets from both Romeo Dobbs and Nuntavian Wicks leaving last season. Tucker Kraft coming back from the ACL tear, hopefully he's going to be 100%, but he was awesome last year before getting hurt. He scored seven touchdowns in his first six games. Hopefully he's going to be at that level of production after the knee injury, but a guy that you can get, it's gonna be fun to debate, you know, that LaPorta, Kraft, Pits, Fan and Group, after you get past Loveland and Warren, I just think that if Kraft is healthy, he's gonna have an absolute monster season, averaged one of the best Yacht tight ends that we've seen in NFL history. - I appreciate that. - So it could be absolutely fantastic. All right, the Twitter poll we have here is which of these tight ends would you rather have, and looking at it here, it's based on cost. So Loveland in round four, LaPorta in round six, Kraft in round seven, I'm sure that's the reason that he won is because of the value, but just over a little under 1100 votes, they're 49% going for Tucker Kraft. All right, we'll take a break. When we come back, it's all of your questions. Thank you for sending them to on X, using the hashtag #AskFFT. We're answering your league-winning questions next year on Fantasy Football Today. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Rapping up our show here on League Winners with some league-winning questions. We got this one from RJ, which sleeper player will be the one that you, will be the one that will put you in the championship game? Your sleeper is? - Well, I don't like to say Jonathan Brooks. - And Nanymore. - Yeah, you can. - The Corey Kroskey-Marit. - That's an interesting one. - I'm still drafting KC Conception in every league I can. - I like that. I'm gonna go with Marce on Lloyd, just with Josh Jacobs being a little bit banged up. - Next question. Well, it's a big one. All right, pick two sleepers, 10 team PPR, pick two keepers. Excuse me, Jamar Chase, Chandmik Bride, Mekka Buka, Bechartuton Dave. I would keep a Buka and Jamar. A Buka and Jamar? - Agreed. - Agreed. All right, we'll go three for three. Next. Pick two keepers, PPR, three year keepers. So I guess you keep them for three years. HN for seventh round keeper, K3, what does that mean? - You can keep them for three years. - Three years. - You have one for the 11th round and Koulson Loven for the 10th round. - Yeah, I would keep, if I'm reading this the right way, A-chan and Loveland. - Yeah, I think so. - I would as well. All right, next one, he's gonna have Naku and Gibbs too. - Congrats on your win, Bob. - And the first over, I'll pick. Oh, he's got NGips, excuse me. 10 team auction draft, half PPR with two wide receivers in one flex. What tier of quarterback and tight end are you generally targeting in that format, Heath? 10 team, so I will not hesitate to still go after the top tight ends, but I am not spending anything on. - I'll spend almost nothing on a quarter. - Like two bucks, right, for two quarterbacks. That would be the max. - I agree. - All right, last question? Oh, that's it. All right, so make sure you're checking out our Fantasy Football Today podcast. We appreciate all the questions. There are links for more on our mail bag, which is coming up on Friday. And please make sure you're donating to our draft that found to benefit the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Dave Hock, and they find out our page on Tiltify. Go to Google, search for FFT Donate 2026, all one word. And you will go to our page, amazing things up for auction. And it's for a great cause. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. We really appreciate that. We appreciate everybody watching. And make sure you, again, you listen to our Fantasy Football Today podcast, Reathcoming, they richer on Jamie Eisenberg. Thanks for watching, Fantasy Football Today. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)